IGG Free Being Me Session 4 Feeling Great – Treasure Hunt* (7-10yrs)

Description

Participants practise spoken challenges to the idea that there’s only one way to be beautiful

Resources

Feeling great messages (attached)
Pen
Paper

Instructions

Choose eight to ten of the messages from sheet 4.1 and hide each one in a different part of your meeting place. Ask participants to form small groups, with a leader accompanying each group.

Hidden around the meeting place are some secret thoughts coming from children like you. It’s your job to find as many as you can and, each time, to think of something to say that will help them understand that there’s no such thing as one way to look beautiful.

Tell everyone the total number of messages hidden, so they will know when they’ve found them all!

Each group hunts for messages. When a group finds a message, the leader reads it out.The group thinks of a positive reply which shows that there isn’t just one way to be beautiful, so worrying about trying to fit with a certain look isn’t worth it.
They shout their message out.For example, in response to, “My friends won’t like me if I’m not pretty”, a group could say, “Don’t worry, we don’t agree! People like you because of who you are, not what you look like!”

Leaders write down the positive replies they hear. The group puts the message back for another group to find.Once the groups have replied to all the messages, try the next part of the activity:Let’s experience for ourselves how positive messages can change how we feel.Ask participants to imagine they are feeling sad because they are worrying about their appearance, like the girls who left those messages.Participants make themselves into a shape that shows how sad they feel.Explain that you are going to read out each of the positive replies the group created during the treasure hunt. When they hear each message, participants should change shape to reflect how it changed their feelings.Hopefully, participants will jump, stretch and smile to show how good these messages made them feel!

Questions
Are there times when you’ve worried about things, the way the girls in those messages did?
What message do you think will help you not to worry in the future?
What was your favourite message from the ones your group came up with in this activity?

Tips:
If the groups find it difficult to come up with their positive replies, ask them questions to help them discuss their ideas. You can also remind them about the key messages of Free Being Me:
There isn’t just one way to look beautiful.
What’s inside matters the most.It’s great to appreciate what our bodies can do, as well as what they look like.
It’s important to be yourself. We are all different, and that makes us special.
People don’t decide if they like you or not just based on what you look like